The Tertiary basins in Korea have widely been studied by numerous researchers producing individual results in sedimentology, paleontology, stratigraphy, volcanic petrology and structural geology, but interdisciplinary studies, inter-basin analysis and basin-forming process have not been carried out yet. Major work of this study is to elucidate evidences obtained from different parts of a basin as well as different Tertiary basins (Pohang, Changgi, Eoil, Haseo and Ulsan basins) in order to build up the correlation between the basins, and an overall picture of the basin architecture and evolution in Korea. According to the paleontologic evidences the geologic age of the Pohang marine basin is dated to be late Lower Miocence to Middle Miocene, whereas other non-marine basins are older as being either Early Miocene or Oligocene(Lee, 1975, 1978: Bong, 1984: Chun, 1982: Choi et al., 1984: Yun et al., 1990: Yoon, 1982). However, detailed ages of the Tertiary sediments, and their correlations in a basin and between basins are still controversial, since the basins are separated from each other, sedimentary sequence is disturbed and intruded by voncanic rocks, and non-marine sediments are not fossiliferous to be correlated. Therefore, in this work radiometric, magnetostratigraphic, and biostratigraphic data was integrated for the refinement of chronostratigraphy and synopsis of stratigraphy of Tertiary basins of Korea. A total of 21 samples including 10 basaltic, 2 porphyritic, and 9 andesitic rocks from 4 basins were collected for the K-Ar dating of whole rock method. The obtained age can be grouped as follows: $14.8{\pm}0.4{\sim}15.2{\pm}0.4Ma$, $19.9{\pm}0.5{\sim}22.1{\pm}0.7Ma$, $18.0{\pm}1.1{\sim}20.4+0.5Ma$, and $14.6{\pm}0.7{\sim}21.1{\pm}0.5Ma$. Stratigraphically they mostly fall into the range of Lower Miocene to Mid Miocene. The oldest volcanic rock recorded is a basalt (911213-6) with the age of $22.05{\pm}0.67Ma$ near Sangjeong-ri in the Changgi (or Janggi) basin and presumed to be formed in the Early Miocene, when Changgi Conglomerate began to deposit. The youngest one (911214-9) is a basalt of $14.64{\pm}0.66Ma$ in the Haseo basin. This means the intrusive and extrusive rocks are not a product of sudden voncanic activity of short duration as previously accepted but of successive processes lasting relatively long period of 8 or 9 Ma. The radiometric age of the volcanic rocks is not randomly distributed but varies systematically with basins and localities. It becomes generlly younger to the south, namely from the Changgi basin to the Haseo basin. The rocks in the Changgi basin are dated to be from $19.92{\pm}0.47$ to $22.05{\pm}0.67Ma$. With exception of only one locality in the Geumgwangdong they all formed before 20 Ma B.P. The Eoil basalt by Tateiwa in the Eoil basin are dated to be from $20.44{\pm}0.47$ to $18.35{\pm}0.62Ma$ and they are younger than those in the Changgi basin by 2~4 Ma. Specifically, basaltic rocks in the sedimentary and voncanic sequences of the Eoil basin can be well compared to the sequence of associated sedimentary rocks. Generally they become younger to the stratigraphically upper part. Among the basin, the Haseo basin is characterized by the youngest volcanic rocks. The basalt (911214-7) which crops out in Jeongja-ri, Gangdong-myon, Ulsan-gun is $16.22{\pm}0.75Ma$ and the other one (911214-9) in coastal area, Jujon-dong, Ulsan is $14.64{\pm}0.66Ma$ old. The radiometric data are positively collaborated with the results of paleomagnetic study, pull-apart basin model and East Sea spreading theory. Especially, the successively changing age of Eoil basalts are in accordance with successively changing degree of rotation. In detail, following results are discussed. Firstly, the porphyritic rocks previously known as Cretaceous basement (911213-2, 911214-1) show the age of $43.73{\pm}1.05$ 및 $49.58{\pm}1.13Ma$(Eocene) confirms the results of Jin et al. (1988). This means sequential volcanic activity from Cretaceous up to Lower Tertiary. Secondly, intrusive andesitic rocks in the Pohang basin, which are dated to be $21.8{\pm}2.8Ma$ (Jin et al., 1988) are found out to be 15 Ma old in coincindence with the age of host strata of 16.5 Ma. Thirdly, The Quaternary basalt (911213-5 and 911213-6) of Tateiwa(1924) is not homogeneous regarding formation age and petrological characteristics. The basalt in the Changgi basin show the age of $19.92{\pm}0.47$ and $22.05{\pm}0.67$ (Miocene). The basalt (911213-8) in Sangjond-ri, which intruded Nultaeri Trachytic Tuff is dated to be $20.55{\pm}0.50Ma$, which means Changgi Group is older than this age. The Yeonil Basalt, which Tateiwa described as Quaternary one shows different age ranging from Lower Miocene to Upper Miocene(cf. Jin et al., 1988: sample no. 93-33: $10.20{\pm}0.30Ma$). Therefore, the Yeonil Quarterary basalt should be revised and divided into different geologic epochs. Fourthly, Yeonil basalt of Tateiwa (1926) in the Eoil basin is correlated to the Yeonil basalt in the Changgi basin. Yoon (1989) intergrated both basalts as Eoil basaltic andesitic volcanic rocks or Eoil basalt (Yoon et al., 1991), and placed uppermost unit of the Changgi Group. As mentioned above the so-called Quarternary basalt in the Eoil basin are not extruded or intruaed simultaneously, but differentiatedly (14 Ma~25 Ma) so that they can not be classified as one unit. Fifthly, the Yongdong-ri formation of the Pomgogri Group is intruded by the Eoil basalt (911214-3) of 18.35~0.62 Ma age. Therefore, the deposition of the Pomgogri Group is completed before this age. Referring petrological characteristics, occurences, paleomagnetic data, and relationship to other Eoil basalts, it is most provable that this basalt is younger than two others. That means the Pomgogri Group is underlain by the Changgi Group. Sixthly, mineral composition of the basalts and andesitic rocks from the 4 basins show different ground mass and phenocryst. In volcanic rocks in the Pohang basin, phenocrysts are pyroxene and a small amount of biotite. Those of the Changgi basin is predominant by Labradorite, in the Eoil by bytownite-anorthite and a small amount pyroxene.
Jeong, Chang Won;Kim, Woo Hong;Yoon, Kwon Ha;Joo, Su Chong
Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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v.16
no.1
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pp.47-55
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2015
Recently, the environment of a hospital information system is a trend to combine various SMART technologies. Accordingly, various smart devices, such as a smart phone, Tablet PC is utilized in the medical information system. Also, these environments consist of various applications executing on heterogeneous sensors, devices, systems and networks. In these hospital information system environment, applying a security service by traditional access control method cause a problems. Most of the existing security system uses the access control list structure. It is only permitted access defined by an access control matrix such as client name, service object method name. The major problem with the static approach cannot quickly adapt to changed situations. Hence, we needs to new security mechanisms which provides more flexible and can be easily adapted to various environments with very different security requirements. In addition, for addressing the changing of service medical treatment of the patient, the researching is needed. In this paper, we suggest a dynamic approach to medical information systems in smart mobile environments. We focus on how to access medical information systems according to dynamic access control methods based on the existence of the hospital's information system environments. The physical environments consist of a mobile x-ray imaging devices, dedicated mobile/general smart devices, PACS, EMR server and authorization server. The software environment was developed based on the .Net Framework for synchronization and monitoring services based on mobile X-ray imaging equipment Windows7 OS. And dedicated a smart device application, we implemented a dynamic access services through JSP and Java SDK is based on the Android OS. PACS and mobile X-ray image devices in hospital, medical information between the dedicated smart devices are based on the DICOM medical image standard information. In addition, EMR information is based on H7. In order to providing dynamic access control service, we classify the context of the patients according to conditions of bio-information such as oxygen saturation, heart rate, BP and body temperature etc. It shows event trace diagrams which divided into two parts like general situation, emergency situation. And, we designed the dynamic approach of the medical care information by authentication method. The authentication Information are contained ID/PWD, the roles, position and working hours, emergency certification codes for emergency patients. General situations of dynamic access control method may have access to medical information by the value of the authentication information. In the case of an emergency, was to have access to medical information by an emergency code, without the authentication information. And, we constructed the medical information integration database scheme that is consist medical information, patient, medical staff and medical image information according to medical information standards.y Finally, we show the usefulness of the dynamic access application service based on the smart devices for execution results of the proposed system according to patient contexts such as general and emergency situation. Especially, the proposed systems are providing effective medical information services with smart devices in emergency situation by dynamic access control methods. As results, we expect the proposed systems to be useful for u-hospital information systems and services.
Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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v.21
no.4
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pp.50-63
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2018
The rapid urbanization had led to a distortion of natural hydrological cycle system. The change in hydrological cycle structure is causing streamflow depletion, changing the existing use tendency of water resources. To manage such phenomena, a streamflow depletion impact assessment technology to forecast depletion is required. For performing such technology, it is indispensable to build GIS-based spatial data as fundamental data, but there is a shortage of related research. Therefore, this study was conducted to use the use of GIS-based time series spatial data for streamflow depletion assessment. For this study, GIS data over decades of changes on a national scale were constructed, targeting 6 streamflow depletion impact factors (weather, soil depth, forest density, road network, groundwater usage and landuse) and the data were used as the basic data for the operation of continuous hydrologic model. Focusing on these impact factors, the causes for streamflow depletion were analyzed depending on time series. Then, using distributed continuous hydrologic model based DrySAT, annual runoff of each streamflow depletion impact factor was measured and depletion assessment was conducted. As a result, the default value of annual runoff was measured at 977.9mm under the given weather condition without considering other factors. When considering the decrease in soil depth, the increase in forest density, road development, and groundwater usage, along with the change in land use and development, and annual runoff were measured at 1,003.5mm, 942.1mm, 961.9mm, 915.5mm, and 1003.7mm, respectively. The results showed that the major causes of the streaflow depletion were lowered soil depth to decrease the infiltration volume and surface runoff thereby decreasing streamflow; the increased forest density to decrease surface runoff; the increased road network to decrease the sub-surface flow; the increased groundwater use from undiscriminated development to decrease the baseflow; increased impervious areas to increase surface runoff. Also, each standard watershed depending on the grade of depletion was indicated, based on the definition of streamflow depletion and the range of grade. Considering the weather, the decrease in soil depth, the increase in forest density, road development, and groundwater usage, and the change in land use and development, the grade of depletion were 2.1, 2.2, 2.5, 2.3, 2.8, 2.2, respectively. Among the five streamflow depletion impact factors except rainfall condition, the change in groundwater usage showed the biggest influence on depletion, followed by the change in forest density, road construction, land use, and soil depth. In conclusion, it is anticipated that a national streamflow depletion assessment system to be develop in the future would provide customized depletion management and prevention plans based on the system assessment results regarding future data changes of the six streamflow depletion impact factors and the prospect of depletion progress.
Currently, thanks to the major stride made in developing wired and wireless communication technology, a variety of IT services are available on land. This trend is leading to an increasing demand for IT services to vessels on the water as well. And it is expected that the request for various IT services such as two-way digital data transmission, Web, APP, etc. is on the rise to the extent that they are available on land. However, while a high-speed information communication network is easily accessible on land because it is based upon a fixed infrastructure like an AP and a base station, it is not the case on the water. As a result, a radio communication network-based voice communication service is usually used at sea. To solve this problem, an additional frequency for digital data exchange was allocated, and a ship ad-hoc network (SANET) was proposed that can be utilized by using this frequency. Instead of satellite communication that costs a lot in installation and usage, SANET was developed to provide various IT services to ships based on IP in the sea. Connectivity between land base stations and ships is important in the SANET. To have this connection, a ship must be a member of the network with its IP address assigned. This paper proposes a SANET-CC protocol that allows ships to be assigned their own IP address. SANET-CC propagates several non-overlapping IP addresses through the entire network from land base stations to ships in the form of the tree. Ships allocate their own IP addresses through the exchange of simple requests and response messages with land base stations or M-ships that can allocate IP addresses. Therefore, SANET-CC can eliminate the IP collision prevention (Duplicate Address Detection) process and the process of network separation or integration caused by the movement of the ship. Various simulations were performed to verify the applicability of this protocol to SANET. The outcome of such simulations shows us the following. First, using SANET-CC, about 91% of the ships in the network were able to receive IP addresses under any circumstances. It is 6% higher than the existing studies. And it suggests that if variables are adjusted to each port's environment, it may show further improved results. Second, this work shows us that it takes all vessels an average of 10 seconds to receive IP addresses regardless of conditions. It represents a 50% decrease in time compared to the average of 20 seconds in the previous study. Also Besides, taking it into account that when existing studies were on 50 to 200 vessels, this study on 100 to 400 vessels, the efficiency can be much higher. Third, existing studies have not been able to derive optimal values according to variables. This is because it does not have a consistent pattern depending on the variable. This means that optimal variables values cannot be set for each port under diverse environments. This paper, however, shows us that the result values from the variables exhibit a consistent pattern. This is significant in that it can be applied to each port by adjusting the variable values. It was also confirmed that regardless of the number of ships, the IP allocation ratio was the most efficient at about 96 percent if the waiting time after the IP request was 75ms, and that the tree structure could maintain a stable network configuration when the number of IPs was over 30000. Fourth, this study can be used to design a network for supporting intelligent maritime control systems and services offshore, instead of satellite communication. And if LTE-M is set up, it is possible to use it for various intelligent services.
Hyoun-Sook Kim;Sang-Myong Lee;Kil-Nam Kang;Seog-Gu Son;Si-Chul Ryu;Kyung-Joon Lee;Jong-Hoon Lee;Byung-Seol Lee;Joong-Ku Lee
Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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v.37
no.5
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pp.347-366
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2023
In the present study, the vegetation was classified using the phytosociological method and canonical-correlation analysis (CCA) was implemented to analyze correlation between community structure and environmental factors in the natural habitats of forest byproducts, especially medicinal plants, such as Cudrania tricuspidata, Sorbus commixta, and Hovenia dulcis, in 2021-2022 to provide primary ecological data to establish environmental conditions for wild vegetable cultivation. A total of 11 plots in five regions, 8 plots in three regions, and 17 plots in 5 regions were selected for the natural habitats of C. tricuspidata in southern Korea, S. commixta in high mountains, and H. dulcis in valleys of central Korea, respectively. The importance value in each community was respectively analyzed as follows, in C. tricuspidata community, the importance value of C. tricuspidata (61.10) was the highest, followed by Celtis sinensis, Pinus thunbergii, Neolitsea aciculata, Styrax japonica, Carpinus coreana, Quercus serrata, and Q. acutissima. In Sorbus commixta community, Q. mongolica (57.21) was the highest, followed by, S. commixta (42.58), Betula ermani, Tilia amurensis, A. pseudosieboldianum, A. tschonoskii var. rubripes, Cornus controversa, Magnolia sieboldii, and Taxus cuspidata. In H. dulcis community, H. dulcis (64.58) was the highest, followed by Zelkova serrata, Cornus controversa, A. mono, Q. serrata, C. cordata, and Juglans mandshurica. As the result of the analysis on DBH of the major species having the high importance value, in C. tricuspidata community, C. tricuspidata, C. sinensis, Neolitsea aciculata, and C. coreana show the density of normal distribution, so the dominant status of these species is likely to continue. In S. commixta community, S. commixta show the density of reverse J-shaped curve, so the dominant status of these species is likely to be stable, and Q. mongolica, B. ermani and T. amurensis, show the density of normal distribution, so the dominant status of these species is likely to continue. In H. dulcis community, C. cordata, and J. mandshurica show the density of reverse J-shaped curve, so the dominant status of these species is likely to be stable, and H. dulcis, Z. serrata, C. controversa and A. mono had a formality distribution, suggesting a continuous domination of these species over the other species for the time being. The results of CCA ordination analysis using 11 environmental factors and 30 communities of three taxa classified by TWINSPAN analysis revealed that the altitude showed the strongest correlation with the vegetation. C. tricuspidata community was distributed on the moderate and gentle northeastern slope at low altitude with the highest pH, C.E.C, Ca2+, and Mg2 and various P2O5, whereas S. commixta community was distributed on the steep slope at high altitude with the highest O.M and T-N and lower P2O5, Ca2+, Mg2+, C.E.C and pH, which is the opposite tendency of the environment of C. tricuspidata community. H. dulcis community was distributed on the gentle northern slope at lower altitude with an average pH, O.M, T-N, Ca2+, Mg2+, and C.E.C, except higher P2O5.
The basic purpose of this study is to investigate perceived quality and service personal value affecting the result of long-term relationship between service buyers and suppliers. This research presented a constructive model(perceived quality affecting the service personal value and the moderate effect of NFC) in the on off line and then propose the research model base on prior researches and studies about relationships among components of service. Data were gathered from respondents who visit at the education service market. For this study, Data were analyzed by AMOS 7.0. We integrate the literature on services marketing with researches on personal values and perceived quality. The SERPVAL scale presented here allows for the creation of a common ground for assessing service personal values, giving a clear understanding of the key value dimensions behind service choice and usage. It will lead to a focus of future research in services marketing, extending knowledge in the field and stimulating further empirical research on service personal values. At the managerial level, as a tool the SERPVAL scale should allow practitioners to evaluate and improve the value of a service, and consequently, to define strategies and actions to address services for customers based on their fundamental personal values. Through qualitative and empirical research, we find that the service quality construct conforms to the structure of a second-order factor model that ties service quality perceptions to distinct and actionable dimensions: outcome, interaction, and environmental quality. In turn, each has two subdimensions that define the basis of service quality perceptions. The authors further suggest that for each of these subdimensions to contribute to improved service quality perceptions, the quality received by consumers must be perceived to be reliable, responsive, and empathetic. Although the service personal value may be found in researches that explore individual values and their consequences for consumer behavior, there is no established operationalization of a SERPVAL scale. The inexistence of an established scale, duly adapted in order to understand and analyze personal values behind services usage, exposes the need of a measurement scale with such a purpose. This need has to be rooted, however, in a conceptualization of the construct being scaled. Service personal values can be defined as a customer's overall assessment of the use of a service based on the perception of what is achieved in terms of his own personal values. As consumer behaviors serve to show an individual's values, the use of a service can also be a way to fulfill and demonstrate consumers'personal values. In this sense, a service can provide more to the customer than its concrete and abstract attributes at both the attribute and the quality levels, and more than its functional consequences at the value level. Both values and services literatures agree, that personal value is the highest-level concept, followed by instrumental values, attitudes and finally by product attributes. Purchasing behaviors are agreed to be the end result of these concepts' interaction, with personal values taking a major role in the final decision process. From both consumers' and practitioners' perspectives, values are extremely relevant, as they are desirable goals that serve as guiding principles in people's lives. While building on previous research, we propose to assess service personal values through three broad groups of individual dimensions; at the self-oriented level, we use (1) service value to peaceful life (SVPL) and, at the social-oriented level, we use (2) service value to social recognition (SVSR), and (3) service value to social integration (SVSI). Service value to peaceful life is our first dimension. This dimension emerged as a combination of values coming from the RVS scale, a scale built specifically to assess general individual values. If a service promotes a pleasurable life, brings or improves tranquility, safety and harmony, then its user recognizes the value of this service. Generally, this service can improve the user's pleasure of life, since it protects or defends the consumer from threats to life or pressures on it. While building upon both the LOV scale, a scale built specifically to assess consumer values, and the RVS scale for individual values, we develop the other two dimensions: SVSR and SVSI. The roles of social recognition and social integration to improve service personal value have been seriously neglected. Social recognition derives its outcome utility from its predictive utility. When applying this underlying belief to our second dimension, SVSR, we assume that people use a service while taking into consideration the content of what is delivered. Individuals consider whether the service aids in gaining respect from others, social recognition and status, as well as whether it allows achieving a more fulfilled and stimulating life, which might then be revealed to others. People also tend to engage in behavior that receives social recognition and to avoid behavior that leads to social disapproval, and this contributes to an individual's social integration. This leads us to the third dimension, SVSI, which is based on the fact that if the consumer perceives that a service strengthens friendships, provides the possibility of becoming more integrated in the group, or promotes better relationships at the social, professional or family levels, then the service will contribute to social integration, and naturally the individual will recognize personal value in the service. Most of the research in business values deals with individual values. However, to our knowledge, no study has dealt with assessing overall personal values as well as their dimensions in a service context. Our final results show that the scales adapted from the Schwartz list were excluded. A possible explanation is that although Schwartz builds on Rokeach work in order to explore individual values, its dimensions might be especially focused on analyzing societal values. As we are looking for individual dimensions, this might explain why the values inspired by the Schwartz list were excluded from the model. The hierarchical structure of the final scale presented in this paper also presents theoretical implications. Although we cannot claim to definitively capture the dimensions of service personal values, we believe that we come close to capturing these overall evaluations because the second-order factor extracts the underlying commonality among dimensions. In addition to obtaining respondents' evaluations of the dimensions, the second-order factor model captures the common variance among these dimensions, reflecting the respondents' overall assessment of service personal values. Towards this fact, we expect that the service personal values conceptualization and measurement scale presented here contributes to both business values literature and the service marketing field, allowing for the delineation of strategies for adding value to services. This new scale also presents managerial implications. The SERPVAL dimensions give some guidance on how to better pursue a highly service-oriented business strategy. Indeed, the SERPVAL scale can be used for benchmarking purposes, as this scale can be used to identify whether or not a firms' marketing strategies are consistent with consumers' expectations. Managerial assessment of the personal values of a service might be extremely important because it allows managers to better understand what customers want or value. Thus, this scale allows us to identify what services are really valuable to the final consumer; providing knowledge for making choices regarding which services to include. Traditional approaches have focused their attention on service attributes (as quality) and service consequences(as service value), but personal values may be an important set of variables to be considered in understanding what attracts consumers to a certain service. By using the SERPVAL scale to assess the personal values associated with a services usage, managers may better understand the reasons behind services' usage, so that they may handle them more efficiently. While testing nomological validity, our empirical findings demonstrate that the three SERPVAL dimensions are positively and significantly associated with satisfaction. Additionally, while service value to social integration is related only with loyalty, service value to peaceful life is associated with both loyalty and repurchase intent. It is also interesting and surprising that service value to social recognition appears not to be significantly linked with loyalty and repurchase intent. A possible explanation is that no mobile service provider has yet emerged in the market as a luxury provider. All of the Portuguese providers are still trying to capture market share by means of low-end pricing. This research has implications for consumers as well. As more companies seek to build relationships with their customers, consumers are easily able to examine whether these relationships provide real value or not to their own lives. The selection of a strategy for a particular service depends on its customers' personal values. Being highly customer-oriented means having a strong commitment to customers, trying to create customer value and understanding customer needs. Enhancing service distinctiveness in order to provide a peaceful life, increase social recognition and gain a better social integration are all possible strategies that companies may pursue, but the one to pursue depends on the outstanding personal values held by the service customers. Data were gathered from 284 respondents in the korean discount store and online shopping mall market. This research proposed 3 hypotheses on 6 latent variables and tested through structural equation modeling. 6 alternative measurements were compared through statistical significance test of the 6 paths of research model and the overall fitting level of structural equation model. and the result was successful. and Perceived quality more positively influences service personal value when NFC is high than when no NFC is low in the off-line market. The results of the study indicate that service quality is properly modeled as an antecedent of service personal value. We consider the research and managerial implications of the study and its limitations. In sum, by knowing the dimensions a consumer takes into account when choosing a service, a better understanding of purchasing behaviors may be realized, guiding managers toward customers expectations. By defining strategies and actions that address potential problems with the service personal values, managers might ultimately influence their firm's performance. we expect to contribute to both business values and service marketing literatures through the development of the service personal value. At a time when marketing researchers are challenged to provide research with practical implications, it is also believed that this framework may be used by managers to pursue service-oriented business strategies while taking into consideration what customers value.
Internet commerce has been growing at a rapid pace for the last decade. Many firms try to reach wider consumer markets by adding the Internet channel to the existing traditional channels. Despite the various benefits of the Internet channel, a significant number of firms failed in managing the new type of channel. Previous studies could not cleary explain these conflicting results associated with the Internet channel. One of the major reasons is most of the previous studies conducted analyses under a specific market condition and claimed that as the impact of Internet channel introduction. Therefore, their results are strongly influenced by the specific market settings. However, firms face various market conditions in the real worlddensity and disutility of using the Internet. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of various market environments on a firm's optimal channel strategy by employing a flexible game theory model. We capture various market conditions with consumer density and disutility of using the Internet.
shows the channel structures analyzed in this study. Before the Internet channel is introduced, a monopoly manufacturer sells its products through an independent physical store. From this structure, the manufacturer could introduce its own Internet channel (MI). The independent physical store could also introduce its own Internet channel and coordinate it with the existing physical store (RI). An independent Internet retailer such as Amazon could enter this market (II). In this case, two types of independent retailers compete with each other. In this model, consumers are uniformly distributed on the two dimensional space. Consumer heterogeneity is captured by a consumer's geographical location (ci) and his disutility of using the Internet channel (${\delta}_{N_i}$).
shows various market conditions captured by the two consumer heterogeneities.
(a) illustrates a market with symmetric consumer distributions. The model captures explicitly the asymmetric distributions of consumer disutility in a market as well. In a market like that is represented in
(c), the average consumer disutility of using an Internet store is relatively smaller than that of using a physical store. For example, this case represents the market in which 1) the product is suitable for Internet transactions (e.g., books) or 2) the level of E-Commerce readiness is high such as in Denmark or Finland. On the other hand, the average consumer disutility when using an Internet store is relatively greater than that of using a physical store in a market like (b). Countries like Ukraine and Bulgaria, or the market for "experience goods" such as shoes, could be examples of this market condition.
summarizes the various scenarios of consumer distributions analyzed in this study. The range for disutility of using the Internet (${\delta}_{N_i}$) is held constant, while the range of consumer distribution (${\chi}_i$) varies from -25 to 25, from -50 to 50, from -100 to 100, from -150 to 150, and from -200 to 200.
summarizes the analysis results. As the average travel cost in a market decreases while the average disutility of Internet use remains the same, average retail price, total quantity sold, physical store profit, monopoly manufacturer profit, and thus, total channel profit increase. On the other hand, the quantity sold through the Internet and the profit of the Internet store decrease with a decreasing average travel cost relative to the average disutility of Internet use. We find that a channel that has an advantage over the other kind of channel serves a larger portion of the market. In a market with a high average travel cost, in which the Internet store has a relative advantage over the physical store, for example, the Internet store becomes a mass-retailer serving a larger portion of the market. This result implies that the Internet becomes a more significant distribution channel in those markets characterized by greater geographical dispersion of buyers, or as consumers become more proficient in Internet usage. The results indicate that the degree of price discrimination also varies depending on the distribution of consumer disutility in a market. The manufacturer in a market in which the average travel cost is higher than the average disutility of using the Internet has a stronger incentive for price discrimination than the manufacturer in a market where the average travel cost is relatively lower. We also find that the manufacturer has a stronger incentive to maintain a high price level when the average travel cost in a market is relatively low. Additionally, the retail competition effect due to Internet channel introduction strengthens as average travel cost in a market decreases. This result indicates that a manufacturer's channel power relative to that of the independent physical retailer becomes stronger with a decreasing average travel cost. This implication is counter-intuitive, because it is widely believed that the negative impact of Internet channel introduction on a competing physical retailer is more significant in a market like Russia, where consumers are more geographically dispersed, than in a market like Hong Kong, that has a condensed geographic distribution of consumers.